The Virgin of the Dry Tree (Madonna of the Dry Tree)
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About this painting
Ezekiel promised that the dry tree would flourish, and Christus painted the sentence. The Tree of Knowledge withered when Adam and Eve ate from it; here the Virgin stands grafted into the dead thorns like a green branch, and the Child is the fruit, holding the orb and cross. Maryan Ainsworth counts fifteen golden A's in the branches — the Ave Maria, one for each decade of the rosary, and the reverse of Eva. Christus and his wife belonged to the confraternity named for this tree.
Sources: Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 'The Virgin of the dry Tree', inv. 121 (1965.10); read 2026-08-27. · Maryan W. Ainsworth, Petrus Christus: Renaissance Master of Bruges (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994), cat. 18, 'Madonna of the Dry Tree', pp. 162-165.
And all the trees of the country shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree, and exalted the low tree: and have dried up the green tree, and have caused the dry tree to flourish. I the Lord have spoken and have done it.
Ezekiel 17:24 · Douay-Rheims (Challoner), from the project’s own corpus at data/bible_drc.js
Printed on demand. Public-domain masterwork, reproduced from a 5,715 px master of the original. The whole image is printed — never cropped to fit the sheet — so every sheet carries an archival margin, and the dimensions and resolution listed above are the ones you receive.